The Longest Winter
by Carmen Veiga
Summary: Requested by Pen Woman. Aster has deep feelings for his fellow Guardian Jaqueline Frost. Old Man Winter, not pleased with the young winter spirit working with different seasonal spirits, has imprisoned her somewhere in his ice palace. The Guardians have three days to play his game and save Jack before she's trapped forever in an icy prison. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1:Captured

**Chapter One:**

**Captured**

Jack shivered slightly as she walked down the hallway of the ice palace. Being the spirit of winter, the cold usually wouldn't affect her. It was only when she would walk across her pond or come to this place where she would feel the slight chill. It would almost make her feel human again. Shaking her head to clear it, she came to a stop in front of a huge door. Intricate patterns and shapes were carved into the wood while two ice giants carrying spears and shields stood side by side on guard.

"State your business," one of them addressed her.

The snow spirit slid the hood of her sweatshirt off her head. White-silver hair tumbled down past her shoulders finally ending halfway down her back. She had changed in the few months after she had become a Guardian. Her childish mischief she still had, her being the Guardian of Fun, but a sense of maturity had caught up with her. She was no longer the girl who had caused the blizzard of '68, but now a young woman.

"Jack Frost. Old Man Winter sent for me," she explained. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the message she had received that morning. After checking it over, both giants stepped aside and tapped the ground with their spears. The great door opened with an eerie creak. Jack walked through, staff resting on her shoulder, and stopped at the base of the throne. An elderly man stood with his back to her looking out the windows behind the chair. The Himalayan mountain range stretched out as far as his sight could see.

Kneeling down on one knee, Jack placed her staff on the cold floor before bowing her head. "Old Man Winter, I have received your message. I have come just as you asked."

"Enough, Jaqueline," the man finally turned. Jack raised her eyes. A kind smile spread across the man's face and he held his arms out. "We are friends. Call me Winter, remember?"

A big grin spread across the ice spirit's face. In two bounds she jumped into the old man's arms, hugging him tightly. "I've missed you."

"It's been a long time," Winter agreed. The older man pulled away and led the snow spirit over to his dining table. Plates of delicious food appeared in front of them. Jack giggled. "That trick never gets old."

"I remember the first time you saw it. Nearly fell out of your chair."

"I did not!"

Winter's laugh rang throughout the room. Even with his old age, his laugh held so much youth. The two winter spirits proceeded to have their feast. Jack ate the most, being the bottomless pit that she was.

Winter leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach. "So, Jaqueline, how have the winter rounds been treating you?"

"They're great!" she exclaimed, her attention being driven away from her food. "I'm going to so many places that I've never gone to before! And you know what happened the other day?"

"What?"

"I was in Iceland, and I got another believer!"

"Really? That's exciting."

"I know! I was sitting on this lamp-post and this little girl pointed up at me and she said 'Jack Frost' in her Icelandic language. It was incredible!" Jack's sapphire eyes glowed with happiness, he same way they always did when a new believer was added to her list.

Winter listened to his young friend as she told him all about her recent adventures and the new Guardian duties she had taken on. However, when she started talking about her fellow guardians, his body stiffened and his demeanor instantly changed. His warm and welcoming smile soon became replaced with a slight frown, and his lips being pressed tightly together.

"You would really like North. He has this huge toy factory, full of elves and yetis making toys, and to compound the awesome, it's in the side of a snowy mountain! He's loud sometimes, especially when he's drinking, but most of the time he's really kind. He's like a dad to me."

Winter's grip tightened on his glass. Jack was oblivious as she continued to casually ramble on.

"And then there's Tooth. She's really smart and beautiful, but she's always obsessing over my teeth. I almost always have to dodge her when I see her. Sandy is pretty cool little guy, although God only knows what happens when he goes out for his "clubbing" trips. He almost always comes back covered in body paint and hung over."

Winter began to bite his lip just hard enough to cause it to bleed. Hearing these stories was causing surges of anger to pulsate through him. As a small stream of blood began to trickle down his pale skin, he quickly dabbed it with a napkin before Jack could get a chance to see his chin stained with any crimson anger. He tried to quietly inhale and exhale, trying in vain to release the mounting fury he felt build up within him. His anger had gotten him into horrible situations in the many centuries he had walked the Earth.

However, before he found the rage leave him, Jack, not thinking anything amiss, began talking once more. "And finally there's E. Aster Bunnymund, by far the crankiest of the Guardians. He gets annoyed with me often, but I must admit, for all the fighting, for all the teasing and name calling, he always manages to make me feel...at home."

Glass shattered as Winter added one last ounce of pressure. Springing up from his seat, his hands slammed down on the table, rattling the plates. "_JAQUELINE!"_

The ice spirit flinched back in complete shock, a frightened look on her face quickly followed. She had never seen Winter this mad before. The first thing she had asked herself was whether she had done something wrong. She flinched back further as the elder spirit's electric blue eyes met hers.

"Jack, I've managed to keep this to myself when you became a guardian, but now I can't take it anymore!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about working and socializing with different seasonal spirits! Three hundred years ago the thought of that idea would be looked down upon with scorn! I've lived by that rule the entire time I had been blessed with immortality, and it's time you start too!"

Silence filled the throne room for only a few moments, but the tension in the air was so thick it felt like hours. Finally, Jack answered in a low voice, "What makes you think that you can tell me what to do? You're... you're not my father."

"That is true. But, who found you when you first became immortal?"

"...You."

"Who helped you control your new powers?"

She sighed, "You."

"And who gave you a place to stay when they could have just tossed you out alone into the world to fend for yourself?"

"You did."

"Exactly. So I know what's best for you. From now on I want you to stay here with me. You can carry out your winter rounds and not get mixed up in that "Guardians of Childhood" nonsense."

Jack's eyes finally shot up from the spot on the table that she was looking at. They were ablaze with anger as she slowly stood up. "Just because you're dead set on the old ways and traditions, don't try to force them onto me. I will _never _give up being a guardian, and I'll never regret joining them! Now, if you'll excuse me, I should be getting back to the Pole before North starts worrying." She picked up her staff, turned swiftly, and started walking toward the door. Just as her cool fingertips touched the aged wood, her entire body froze and grew numb. She tried moving forward again, but she couldn't budge. Every command she gave to her body was answered with a grave stillness. She silently started panicking. "_What the hell was going on?" s_he asked herself.

"Turn around, Jack."

To the ice spirit's dismay, her body slowly turned around and faced Winter. Fear coursed through her veins as she caught the sinister smirk on her old friend's face.

"You're going to be staying here for a _long _time, Jaqueline," he said. In one swift movement, he snapped his fingers. Jack's vision was flooded with a blinding white light before everything turned dark.

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**Post notes- YEAAAH! I HAD A SNOWDAY YESTERDAY! WHOO THREE DAY WEEKEND! Anyway, this request came to me from Pen Woman. I hoped you all liked it!**


	2. Chapter 2:The Note

**Chapter Two:**

**The Note**

E. Aster Bunnymund's teeth chattered non-stop as he waited in the globe room with Tooth and Sandy. North had called them all to the Pole, expressing over and over that it was an extreme emergency. _"Bah, the only extreme emergency that happens with North is when he runs outta vodka," _the pooka though to himself while trying to keep warm near the giant fireplace. The cold seemed to hate him the most, because he couldn't get warm no matter what he tried to do. A long string of curses started firing under the hare's breath when North suddenly walked in.

Before anyone could utter a syllable, Bunny beat them all to it. "So, what's the huge 'emergency' this time, North? Did ya run out of your precious alcohol? Or maybe one of your stinkin' machines broke?" The pooka knew he was being cruel, but he couldn't help it. He had worked non-stop the past week, and the compiled irritation finally got to him. He was sick of working, but it only irritated him more when he was called away from the Warren like this.

"Jack has been kidnapped."

A heavy silence filled the room after the blunt, monotone statement. North was looking down at the floor, not meeting the other's eyes, but his hands were clenched into tight fists, the knuckles turning white. His face looked paler, disheveled and riddled with fear and depression. The other guardians all knew that the winter spirit looked up to the toymaker as a father figure, and North treated her as a precious daughter. North tended to over-react when Jack was a few minutes late coming home, but he had never looked like this before.

Attempting to ease the tension, Tooth fluttered over, worry tracing her violet eyes. "Maybe she just got held up with something."

"Yeah," Bunny added, "she's probably still on her rounds, or maybe she's hanging with Jamie and she lost track of-" the hare's mouth immediately snapped close as North's face was inches away from his own.

"DOES ZIS LOOK LIKE SHE LOST TRACK OF TIME TO YOU!" North roared. Bunny's ears pressed against his head in a frightened way. He saw from his peripheral vision the toymaker's hand coming toward him. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the fist to connect with his face, but it didn't come. Cracking an eye open, the pooka saw that it was a piece of parchment that North had shoved in his face. Taking it cautiously from him, his green eyes read over the yellow paper Tooth and Sandy reading over his shoulder:

_Dear North,_

_I've written you this letter to tell you that I have run away. Don't bother looking for me, you'll never find me. I'm never going to be as good as you, or the rest of the guardians, and I know that you'll never accept me, so I'll get out of your hair. Goodbye._

_Love,_

_Jack_

A shocked gasp escaped from Tooth. Small tears had formed in the corners of her eyes. "Why would she ever do that? We love her!" Sandy patted her shoulder and offered a reassuring yet equally worried smile.

"I vondered why too. But, iz not in her handwriting."

Bunny, who had been quiet for these past few minutes gripped the parchment so hard that it ripped slightly. "Then who in the holy hell took her?" Jack was like his younger sister and anyone who hurt her wouldn't get away unscathed if he had anything to say about it.

"Zat, I'm afraid I don't know."

The short silence that came over them was broken when Tooth gasped, the feathers of her crown puffing out slightly. "Look!"

The four guardians looked up to see Manny shining down through the open space in North's ceiling.

"Manny, have you found out ver Jack is?"

The moon, being silent like always, sent one of his moon beams shining down to the floor. A shadow image appeared there. An old man wearing a long robe and holding a staff.

"Old Man Winter," Bunny whispered his fur bristling in anger.

"How do you know who it is, Bunny?" Tooth asked him curiously.

The pooka clenched his fists before answering the fairy queen. "Jack told me about him a few weeks ago. He found her when she had just turned into Jack Frost. Apparently, the ol' dingo trained her and helped her use her powers. Never thought he'd stoop so low as to takin' an innocent kid."

"But Jaqueline is not a kid, is she Aster?"

The guardians froze as a chilling voice echoed around the toy shop. There was a huge gust of winter wind and Old Man Winter appeared on top of the globe. He had a sly smirk on his face and Jack's staff in his hand.

"What have ya done with Jack ya saggy old man?!" Bunny yelled bringing out his boomerangs. North unsheathed his swords while Sandy brought out his sand whips and Tooth's wings sharpened like knives.

"Temper, temper Cottontail. Jackie is safe and sound with me. Why don't we take this conversation somewhere I feel more in my element," before any of them could launch an attack, gusts of wind and snow suddenly appeared and swirled around them transporting them to Winter's ice palace.

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**Author's notes- I'M SO SORRY THAT I TOOK SO LONG TO POST THIS! Life has kept with me busy with school, work, and not to mention a busy schedule with drama, and then I have my Confirmation coming up (I'm Catholic) and I'm going to be taking my test for my driving permit on Friday...so yeah, you get the gist. **

**The next chapter fot Painted Heart is nearly done so keep on the lookout for that too. See ya, my lovlies!**


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